I’m giving my students their first composition quiz this week. The Monday kids get it today, the T/TH kids will get it tomorrow.
To my mind, the thing is PATHETICALLY easy. I’ve got a section of commonly confused words (and I didn’t even include “lay” and “lie”), five definitions, a few subject/verb agreement questions, a section asking them to recall some of their notes about the writing process, and a prompt for a four paragraph essay. I’m really hoping they do well; I’ve got more than half my hybrid course listed as failing because they’re STILL not turning in their homework, and they really need a good grade.
Today is also the day that the head chef of the culinary school and my department chair will be making the rounds to the Gen. Ed. classes to stress the importance of doing well in these courses. It seems that mine is not the only class in which the culinary students are taking an apathetic stance, and a good many of them are in real danger of failing out of the program altogether if they don’t start doing some work. I’m wondering how much this intervention will help. I’m hoping for the best, but I have to admit to being a bit pessimistic about the overall outcome. As a wise person once told me, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t hold his head under long enough to make a difference.
I’ll be bringing my computer to work today so that I can enter grades from journals and such while the darlings take their quizzes. I’ve also got to start on progress reports – we’re at just about mid-term and I’ll need to have paper trails on bunch of the students – and I may have time to get those going while the students work. I’m annoyed that my school still uses four-part forms for progress reports, though; my grading software allows me to print up progress reports on each student, and having to fill out the school’s forms is time-consuming, redundant work. I may just print out the progress reports for each student, then staple them to the school forms….
I’m off to begin my day! Wish my students luck, please; they may need it….
